🗒️ Captain’s Log: March 2025

31st March 2025

This month we became the proud new crew of Scribbler — a 1989 Nonsuch 30 and the newest member of our little family. She’s got the charm of a classic cruiser, plenty of quirks, and a freestanding mast that makes her look like a bold statement against the skyline.

After 4 years of racing & sailing Sea Gypsy (our van de stadt splinter 21), an opportunity arose to take on the mighty Scribbler - which had been sat in our local marina looking un-loved for a long time.

So we said yes to the next adventure.

The truth is, Scribbler is a bit of a project boat. She needed a good bit of TLC to bring her back to life — and that’s exactly what we’re be up to for the next few months. Between nap times, trips to screw-fix & Quay west Chandlery runs, and the occasional “where did I put that spanner?”, we’ve slowly brought her back to fighting form. She’s not perfect (who is?), but she’s solid, comfortable, and very much ours.

Now, with summer arriving shortly in Poole Harbour, we want to be ready to cast off and start making memories aboard our floating home from home. There’s something special about stepping aboard with a mug of coffee, a baby in one arm, and the feeling that anything is possible.

This summer is all about micro adventures — short hops, gentle anchorages, and salty snacks shared under the freshly made sprayhood. Our crew includes:

• Molly (1.5 years old) — our tiny captain-in-training with a love for snacks, seagulls, and climbing anything remotely dangerous.
• Mike — the problem solver, chief fixer-of-things and co-dreamer.
• Suzie (me) — the calm in the chaos, chief toddler entertainer and dreamer.

Our plans? Keep it simple for now. Sail when we can, explore when we feel brave, and enjoy the beauty of this wobbly, wonderful life afloat as a young family.

Here’s to a summer of salt spray, naps in the v-berth, and our first scribbled pages in the logbook of Scribbler.

See you on the water!

— The Scribbler Crew

🗒️ Captain’s Log: April 2025

🔧 Spring is for Fixing & Replacing

Boat work, biscuit breaks, and one very hands-on toddler.

As the spring sunshine finally showed up, so did the to-do list — and Scribbler was ready for some love. This month has been a full-blown juggling act of boat work, baby wrangling, and daydreaming about all the micro adventures to come.

Let’s just say we’ve been spending a lot of time with a spanner in one hand and a rice cake in the other.

👶 Our Project Manager: Molly

Mostly, the hard graft happened during nap times… or with Molly cheerfully supervising from the cockpit while crumbling snacks into every winch. Family boat projects: they’re slower, stickier, and 100% more rewarding.

🛠️ Scribbler’s Spring Refresh

Here’s what we’ve been up to:

✅ Engine TLC

Replaced all engine hoses and pipes to bring her up to modern safety standards

Full engine service with shiny new fuel & oil filters, a fresh impeller, and a few specialist parts flown in from the USA

Replaced the engine blower

Fixed leaky air vents (and added “never trust a plastic mushroom vent” to the mental logbook)

✅ Interior Upgrades

Floorboards sanded and re-varnished to a smooth shine (cheers, Dad!)

A fresh set of custom covers made by me and Mark — including a new giant boom cover, wheel cover and smart new sprayhood.

Future project: new interior upholstery (once I learn how to sew corners that don’t swear at me) and down the line we would also like to make a full enclosure, but theres no rush for that!

✅ Deck & Rigging Jobs

Serviced winches and our faithful manual windlass

Deep-cleaned the mainsail — she now smells 80% less like old seaweed

Replaced every line on board — new halyards, ropes, and running rigging

Swapped out the anodes (a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it)

✅ Electrics: Switched On

Slowly but surely getting the electrical systems back to scratch — one wire, fuse, and confusing manual at a time.

☀️ Ready to Sail… Sort Of

It’s been a full-on few weeks, but Scribbler is now watertight, wired up, and one step closer to being adventure-ready. There’s still a to-do list (does that ever end?), but she’s transformed from tired project boat to proud little cruiser.

We’re not aiming for perfection — just safe, seaworthy, and good enough for toast and tea in the cockpit.

Next up? Our first proper sail as a family of three. It may not be smooth, but we’re excited to get her off the mooring and into the flow of boat life.

Thanks for following along — more updates soon from the salty side!

🗒️ Captain’s Log: May 2025

Location: Poole Harbour

Status: Floating, fabulous, and almost ready to sail

May has been a big month for Scribbler. After a long spring of tinkering, tweaking and toiling away, we’ve ticked off some major milestones — and she’s finally looking more yacht than yard project.

🧵 First up: canvas work

A brand new sprayhood is now proudly in place — stitched by yours truly, with plenty of help from Mark (aka Molly’s grandad and workshop legend). We also finished a sleek new boom cover that fits like a glove and should survive many British summers.

📋 Survey success!

We’re thrilled (and slightly shocked) to say Scribbler passed her survey with flying colours — always a win with a 1989 boat. No surprises, no disasters… just a small list of “keep an eye on this” and “fix that eventually.” We’ll take it.

🌊 She’s back in the water

We launched her and settled her on her swinging mooring off Hamworthy Beach (Branksea Avenue). It’s a beautiful spot — but the commute in our current two-man dinghy? We’re not sure that’s going to work…back to the think tank on that one!

🧼 Sails & Sparkle

The mainsail has been washed and re-rigged, ready to catch the breeze again. Floorboards are varnished and looking classy, even if they’ll be covered in crumbs again within the hour.

🧰 Next jobs:

• Replace a few fiddly fittings
• Tidy the electrics
• Load up the galley with tea and toddler snacks
• Oh — and maybe even go sailing by the end of the month!

🪢 Scribbler is slowly turning from “project boat” to “proud cruiser.” She’s salty, sturdy, and ready for a season of mini adventures.

See you on the water.

⚓️Captain’s Log – Early June 2025

Theme of the month: Final tweaks, floating caravans & one dramatic kelp encounter

After months of hard graft, Scribbler finally spent two full weeks in the marina — and what a luxury that felt. Power, water, showers… and blissfully, no near-capsizing dinghy rides.

🔧 Final Touches

June’s focus was ticking off those final pre-season jobs:

• ✅ Engine service complete (after waiting on yet more specialist parts — thanks, American diesel)
• ✅ Rigging and lines checked and tuned
• ✅ Reefing practice on the dock (not your average rig setup!)
• ✅ Berthing drills done — in, out, round again, like we were training for the Olympic dinghy dance

Equal parts satisfying and sweaty, but we’re getting there.

🛶 Dinghy Drama & Mooring Moves

In a bold moment of optimism (or madness), we attempted a trip out to Scribbler’s old mooring at Branksea Avenue on a breezy day… in a dinghy designed for two people. Spoiler: it doesn’t work for two adults and a toolbox.

By the time we arrived (slightly damp and frazzled), we felt like we’d just recreated the final voyage of the Mary Celeste — just with more squealing and significantly worse paddling technique.

So, we made the only sane decision:

🚨 Dinghy upgrade required.

We’ve now got a sturdy 4-person inflatable with actual buoyancy, legroom, and toddler approval. Best part? It still fits in the bathroom when deflated.

After this soggy misadventure, we began exploring options for a closer mooring — and lucked out with a swinging mooring at Poole Yacht Club, complete with launch service. Game changer.

🌊 Seaweed Sabotage

Just before we moved Scribbler, we planned one last calm trip from Branksea Avenue to the club… with Molly in tow. The weather had been gloriously hot all week, and Scribbler’s waterline had grown a charming fuzzy green beard.

As we slipped lines and started motoring, the engine made a strange noise that I had heard almost as soon as the rhythm had changed. Not good. I was on the helm with a clingy Molly in one arm and the wheel in the other, while Mike scrambled to diagnose the issue. We drifted gently (thankfully) to the nearest mooring before there was any Chance that the engine could overheat. Mike tried the old classic — curtain wire down the seacock. No luck.

The culprit?

🌿 A long, sneaky strand of seaweed had been sucked into the engine intake.

So he did what any committed boat husband would do:

He jumped in. Armed with snorkel and sheer determination, Mike dove beneath and pulled the kelp out by hand, like some kind of boat-saving Neptune.

Crisis averted. Toddler soothed. Pride: slightly bruised.

Mike has now added “upgrade intake pipe to solid tubing” to the list — and made a mental note that next time we’re on the hard, an external strainer would be a smart move.

🛏️ Scribbler the Floating Caravan

After our aquatic episode, we tucked back into the marina for another peaceful weekend aboard. And honestly? Scribbler makes a brilliant floating caravan — cosy, breezy, and the perfect base for toddler chaos, tea breaks, and boat project evenings. We 4 nights on her that week, making the most of the glorious weather and cooler environment (our home was much hotter than the boat!) and made the perfect escape!

Molly Entertainment!

One of my biggest challenges while out on the boat? Keeping Molly entertained.

After reaching out to the wonderfully wise parents over on the Kids4Sail Facebook group (a goldmine for cruising families with little ones), the consensus was clear: distraction is everything.

So off we marched — on a mission to stock up the boat with toddler-approved entertainment. We came back armed with colouring pens, ball pit balls, a crabbing line, and a bucket.

And you know what? It worked a treat. Molly was busy, curious, and (dare I say it) actually tired herself out. Just in time for a peaceful nap while we berthed the boat back in the marina later that day. Small victories, big relief.

⛵ What’s Next?

We’re nearly there. The big jobs are done, the boat’s feeling solid, and the sailing season awaits.

We’ve loosely advertised her online, just in case a kindred spirit comes along — though we expect to have her for a while longer, as she’s an unusual looking yacht. But also to soak up all the hard work and enjoy some proper cruising adventures as a family!

Until then, we’re loving the chaos, the calm, and every salty minute in between.

📖 Stay tuned — more Scribbles coming soon.

— The Scribbler Crew

🛥️ Final Adventures of Scribbler — 5th July 2025

The eBay listing that refused to die…

Well, that escalated quickly.

Last week, I got a surprise notification from eBay—apparently, I forgot to take Scribbler’s listing down (oops) after signing up with a yacht broker earlier that week. But it turned out to be one of those accidental strokes of luck. The message? A prospective buyer was keen to come view her… within the next couple of days.

They’d previously owned a Nonsuch 26, so they knew exactly what they were looking for—and, more importantly, what they were looking at. No convincing needed. Just a proper boat nerd falling in love with a proper boat. Next thing you know, I’m walking them through every lovingly scrubbed nook and replacement part, and BAM—offer made, deal done, and Scribbler is officially SOLD.

I know. We’re as shocked as you are.

It’s been four months of full-throttle boat chaos. From buying her off the back of an email to the previous owner, dragging her out of six years of boatyard hibernation, pressure-washing what can only be described as “marine archaeology” off her bottom, replacing every inch of rope, servicing an engine … and somehow turning her into a boat people actually want.

Were we expecting to sell her this soon? Absolutely not. Did we kind of bite off more than we could chew? Absolutely yes. But we chewed anyway—spat out the gross bits—and ended up flipping a boat, learning loads, and surviving it as a family. Just.

Now Scribbler’s off to a new home with someone who knows her weird charm and can appreciate her freestanding-rig, wide beam ass and the Canadian sass!

Goodbye, Scribbler. You gloriously well built, fibreglass headache. Thanks for the memories, the mould, and the ride!

Until the next wild idea…(which is already in the pipeline!)

🦀 The Pearce Crew